Titan ACE - pickleball machine review

Are you looking to level up your game with a pickleball machine? The Titan ACE might be new on the scene but some players are already claiming it's going to compete with the Erne, one of my favorite pickleball machines.

The Titan ACE is like a lighter, more compact version of the Erne. There's no setup with this machine (it comes pre-assembled out of the box), so I hit the courts straight away. Let's see how it performs and if it justifies being $300 more expensive than the Erne (with our $100 Erne discount).

The Titan ACE is my recommendation if you want the most portable and compact pickleball machine. Alternatively, if you want complete customization of your pickleball practice drills, this promises you exactly that.

You can tailor every ball in a sequence to get the exact shot you want, letting you target weak areas of your game. You can even watch it on a simulator before saving the settings.

Like the Erne, this machine is software-powered, which gives it a huge advantage over hardware machines. Every time Titan updates the software, your app and machine will update too. Erne and Titan are like the Tesla of pickleball.

Watch my first thoughts on the Titan ACE:

There's a lot to like about the Titan. Its main appeal is that it's compact and light so is easily transportable. You also don't have to plug it in on the courts, which can be a pain. Plus, the battery pops out (like a drill battery) so you can charge it without having to drag your whole machine to a wall outlet.

There are some downsides, though. My main issue is the lower ball capacity (110). For me, the worst thing about pickleball machines is bending over to pick up the balls. If this is a real concern for you, I'd recommend the Erne (150 ball capacity). If you're a beginner, try the Lobster pickleball machine (135) instead.

The battery life is a lot shorter than the Erne too. Titan claims it lasts 2 hours, though it can do over 3 if you don't run it that hard. Still, the Erne easily lasts over 6 hours so is preferable if you don't want to bother with charging your machine as often.

I also find the drills and app less user-friendly (and less useful) than the Erne. Some of the drills are confusing and do things you'd never need in real game play. While I appreciate the ability to customize heavily, I'd prefer better preset drills.

One minor annoyance is a delay in starting drills. When I click start, it takes 5 seconds for the machine to feed the ball. I can get over that, though.

Overall, given the choice, I'd still go with Erne over the Titan. It's $300 less, offers more useful drills, and has a larger ball hopper. However, if the Erne is on backorder, the Titan ACE is an excellent alternative. Some people will downright prefer it too—especially if they prioritize compactness and ease of transport.

While the Titan ACE is priced highly at $2,099, this is a worthwhile investment if you're a serious player. You'll be a better player after practicing with this machine. I sure was.

Let's look at some of the features that help the Titan ACE stand out as one of the best pickleball machines.

Just like with the Erne, you control everything through an app on your phone. This is a huge advantage over machines that run on hardware only. This way, your machine improves every time Titan releases a software update.

That said, Titan's app is not as easy to figure out as the Erne's. Hopefully they keep working on it and make it more user friendly. The Titan team sent me a video tutorial which you might find useful. Check that out here:

I like this feature—it sets it apart from the Erne. The battery pops out and can be charged, like a drill battery, so you don't need to lug the whole machine to the wall to charge it.

The compact design and low 39 lb weight (versus the Erne's 50 lb) make it easy to store at home and fit in your trunk. I had to haul the Erne in and out of my backseat so this is a big plus. That's why I named this the best compact pickleball machine.

The downside is that it's smaller, so it has less ball capacity than the Erne (110 vs 150). This means more work for you picking up balls—the worst part of these training systems.

Personally though, the trade-off isn't worth it. I'd much rather put up with a heavier machine if it meant having more pickleball balls.

The speed range covers it all, from 10-75 mph. You can start by working your soft game in the 10-20 mph range. I enjoy the 45-50 mph zone as it lets me work on my fast hands, which is a skill I need to improve.

I don't know why anyone would need to go as high as 75 mph. Even the Erne's top speed of 65 mph is too high. Anything above 60 is scary and a little bit dangerous! It just doesn't happen in real gameplay.

The Titan ACE gives you 20 "direction" settings that supposedly cover the whole court. My testing generally found this to be true—you can go from a wide forehand to a backhand and everything in between.

I knocked it down a half-point against the Erne because the Erne gives you horizontal angle settings from 3 to 77. This gives you roughly three times the granularity in picking your exact spot in between the wide extremes.

However, this does make it easier to scroll through and change direction on the Titan. Meanwhile, it can be harder to change the angle with the Erne and go from one edge of the court to the other.

This is the main area I wish were better. I filled my machine to the 110 capacity but two balls fell out when I started the machine. So let's call the true capacity 108.

The Erne, by comparison, holds 40% more balls (150). That's a noticeable increase. The hopper runs out much faster with the Titan ACE and I'm spending more time than I'd like picking up balls.

Portability is a lot better here than with the Erne. The Titan ACE weighs 39 lbs (vs the Erne's 50 lbs) and it's way easier to load into your car. With a more compact, rectangular build, it can lie flat in the trunk of my Sedan.

In comparison, I have to squish the Erne into my backseat, putting a strain on my back when loading and unloading.

What keeps the Titan from scoring a 10 here is the wheels. They feel a bit cheap and not that smooth when rolling, especially if you're going up inclines with the extra weight of a fully loaded machine. It's almost a workout in itself.

Titan claims their machine can run for 2 hours, which is a huge drop from the 6+ hours I get with my Erne. This does depend on how hard you run your machine, though, as I'm able to stretch it to 3-4 hours with the ACE.

This isn't a huge deal since you can buy a spare Titan ACE battery if you don't want to worry about your machine losing power. Plus, the battery can always be unplugged for charging which is convenient.

The Titan ACE comes pre-assembled, so you don't need to do any physical setup. With the Erne, you have to install a piece to prevent balls from clogging in the feeder. With the Titan, a metal wire is already in place that serves the same purpose.

I do wish the smartphone app were simpler to use as it's not very intuitive. To access the advanced customization features, you have to tap and hold on the drill number circle. I don't think I would have figured that out if Titan hadn't sent me a tutorial.

Working on the sequences (a powerful feature), you have to scroll through each ball, which wasn't always obvious like with the Erne. Also, with the Erne, I generally knew exactly what to expect from each drill just by their names. With the Titan, drill names like "Slinky" and "Narrow Dinking" were confusing at first.

The "Megadrill" feature lets you stack multiple drills together so that they run one after another. It's a neat idea but I don't like how it repeats each drill three times before moving to the next one. I'm not sure why they set it up that way—it was frustrating the first time I tested the machine.

The Titan ACE has a powerful "Simulate" feature that lets you preview the ball placement and trajectory of customized shots before you start. That's a huge bonus that the Erne doesn't have, though it's not always accurate. Many times it said the ball wasn't going to make it over the net, but when I ran the machine, it cleared easily. Hopefully, issues like these can be solved with a software update.

Like with the Erne, accuracy can be frustrating as shots vary slightly from ball to ball. For example, the "Deep Serve" drill sends about 30% of balls out of bounds, which isn't helpful to drill against since you'd never hit those back in real gameplay.

The ability to customize each ball in a preset sequence is one of the Titan's best attributes. This was something I called Erne out for not having (though they have introduced it since my initial review).

With the Titan ACE, you can easily scroll and customize all attributes of a shot: height, speed, direction, feed, and spin. There are limits to this though. I can't see how to build a custom sequence from scratch.

For example, I can customize each shot in the "Forehand Sequence", which is six shots by default. What if I only want four shots in my sequence? If they update this feature, it'll be 10/10.

Watch me testing out a customized drill sequence:

The Titan ACE has twelve sets of drills. Let's take a look at each one:

This is a powerful and deep shot to your backhand. It's good to test but it would be better if 30-40% of these shots didn't go out of bounds. Watch me test out this drill on the court:

The same as the "Deep Serve-BH", but for your forehand.

This gives you six varied shots to your backhand: a good mix of drives, short balls, volleys, and an overhead. It's a nice drill and you can customize each shot. That said, it doesn't follow a logical sequence in actual gameplay so it's more of an athletic drill and a good workout.

Same as "BH Sequence" but for your forehand.

This sends a hard backspin shot to the middle of the court, generally in the transition zone. I find this helpful to learn how to hit against a hard slice. You have to really hit up on the ball to topspin it back the other way, and I see so many rec players struggle with this at my local courts.

This is a good one that the Erne doesn't have out of the box. It rips backspin as you can see in this video:

The same as "Narrow Backspin" but the ball is loaded with topspin and bounces aggressively toward you. It's good practice but the ball has way more topspin than most rec (or even advanced players) can put on the ball.

This is a basic drill for getting a neutral ball you can customize. I find this one the most useful to simulate a real shot in gameplay and use it to test my drop shots.

Honestly, I have no idea what this one is for. I used it to simulate pop-ups that I could attack at the net.

Great drill. I find the overheads deep and challenging. I questioned if they were going out so I let a few land and they were right in, near the baseline.

I'm not sure what this one is for. The balls land deep to where I can volley them hard out of the air. That's good practice, but it's not "dinking" as the name suggests.

This one got me dinking, but I have to move the machine almost to the kitchen line (about 2 feet behind it) for it to work. From there, it gives me perfect dinks: short and low ones that I can't attack and have to dink back.

This feels very similar to the "Crosscourt Dinking" drill. I believe the direction preset is different, starting on my forehand, but you can customize this anyway.

At $2,099, the Titan ACE is $200 more expensive than the Erne ($300 if you factor in our Erne discount). That's a bold move considering the Erne is the best pickleball machine right now.

While you get some improvements over the Erne—it's more compact and portable—the drawbacks outweigh these. Namely, 40% lower ball capacity, a less user-friendly app, and drills that don't work as well out of the box.

Given these factors, I can't recommend paying the premium for the Titan ACE unless the Erne is on backorder and you don't want to wait for your machine, or you know you want a smaller, lighter machine.

Overall, though, any player who is serious about taking their game to the next level will be happy with either of these machines—providing they don't mind the $2k price tags. They're both awesome, but the Erne is just a smarter investment.

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